Dedicated to discovering bright new writers (who must be unpublished in book form and under the age of 35), the prize has been awarded to now-household names like Yann Martel, Michael Crummey, and Jeramy Dodds.

Today the Writers’ Trust of Canada announced their 2016 finalists. The winner will be announced June 8. The winner will receive $5,000, and the remaining finalists will receive $1,000.

Brendan Bowles for “Wyatt Thurst”
Brendan Bowles has won the Toronto Star Short Story Award and has been nominated for the CBC Short Story Prize, the Disquiet International Literary Contest, and the Broken Social Scene Story Award. He was one of two writers nominated for PEN Canada’s New Voices Award in 2013. Bowles lives in Toronto.

Allegra McKenzie for “This Monstrous Heart”
Allegra McKenzie is a writer based in Wakefield, Quebec. She placed first in the 2014 Quebec Writing Competition, and her short fiction has been published in Geist, Maisonneuve, and Salut King Kong: New English Writing from Quebec. McKenzie is co-owner of Point, a writing and editing business based in the Gatineau Hills.

Hannah Rahimi for “With My Scarf Tied Just So”
Hannah Rahimi grew up in Toronto. She earned an MA from Concordia University in Montreal, and is currently pursuing an MFA at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana. Her short fiction has been published in Cosmonaut’s Avenue and Drain Magazine.

It will be lucky number thirteen for one writer this year, with the thirteenth iteration of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, presented by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. The prize rewards the year's finest book tackling a political subject of interest to Canadian readers.